Ford government won’t hear from more than 1,500 on sweeping health restructuring bill

Toronto: The Ontario Health Coalition will appear before the Ontario Legislature’s Standing Committee on Social
Policy this morning in the public hearings into Bill 74. The Ford government’s new health restructuring law, the Coalition reports, gives the Minister of Health and the government’s appointees in the new Super Agency sweeping new powers to order, direct, coerce through funding powers, and otherwise force health service restructuring and privatization. The Coalition is concerned that local health care services will be put in jeopardy, that any remaining local control over health services is being taken away, that the legislation enables the government and the Super Agency to force the privatization of a massive array of health care services, and that the legislation has been stripped of all democratic protections. Health Coalition executive director Natalie Mehra issued the following statement this morning in response to the government’s refusal to date to hold public hearings across Ontario and to consult with the people of the province who fund our health care system.